Published Sunday, 25 September 2011
Former PUP leader Dawn Purvis reacted after the 78-year-old Belfast man died in hospital, where he was admitted 12 days ago.
Ms Purvis said: "Gusty challenged many within loyalism to find a peaceful path.
"He committed himself to wanting something better and to working for something better."
Mr Spence was convicted of murder in the 1960s but later renounced violence and announced the 1994 Combined Loyalist Military Command ceasefire.
He became heavily involved in politics and was a key figure in the Progressive Unionist Party.
Describing Mr Spence's journey to politics, political analyst Brian Rowan said: "Gusty Spence was undoubtedly a man of war, but also a man of peace.
"Many people will identify gusty Spence with the UVF organisation, with the hurt, the killing, all of the violence of that campaign over a long period, but it also has to be said that he made a very significant contribution to the peace process."
Loyalists would say that loyalism didn’t have direction until Gusty Spence gave it direction. He educated loyalists and made them think about politics rather than violence.
Brian Rowan
"Many people see Gusty Spence as a lecturer. The loyalist prisoner population were his students.
"Some loyalists who I've spoken to said the debate and discussion that went on in the jail in the 1970s prepared them for the meetings with Presidents and Prime Ministers and for the negotiations that followed the 1994 ceasefire, leading to the Good Friday Agreement."
William Smith, one of the former loyalist prisoners who was influenced by Gusty Spence, said: "I went into prison in 1972 and it was there that we first started to question the violence."
"The 70s were the toughest period and Gusty led us through that darkness and showed us the way forward. In later years that manifested itself in the like of David Ervine and the PUP."
Sinn Féin MLA Gerry Kelly said Mr Spence will be remembered by many nationalists as "central to the sectarianism that gave birth to the modern loyalist paramilitary".
"He did dedicate himself to peace and reconciliation for much of his later life so he will also be remembered as a major influence in drawing loyalism away from sectarian strife.
"Gusty Spence played a key role within loyalism in bringing the UVF and Red Hand Commando into the peace process and announcing their ceasefires in 1994. This valuable contribution allowed the peace process to develop further," Mr Kelly said.